It can be a lot of fun to toss a giggling toddler into the air or give a kid a ride on your shoulders, but it can be riskier than you realize. It’s all because of an often-overlooked hazard - the ceiling fan. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, every year, around 23-hundred kids are treated at U.S. emergency rooms for head injuries caused by ceiling fans.
A new study finds that ERs saw over 20-thousand ceiling fan-related injuries between 2013 and 2021. Experts say a lot of those injuries often go unreported, so that number could be even higher.
- The study finds that head injuries from ceiling fans happen most in two age groups - kids under one year old and at four years old - but kids under three have twice the risk of injury.
- The most commonly treated injury is lacerations, ER doctors see cuts in 60% of cases.
- More serious injuries, like concussions and skull fractures are also reported.
- Skull fractures account for 5% to 18% of the cases treated at emergency departments in Australia.
“For really young kids, even infant babies, we see that they can be hit by a ceiling fan when an adult lifts them up into the air and actually lifts them or tosses them up to impact the ceiling fan,” Lead study author Dr. Holly Hughes Garza explains. “This could be sometimes done playfully and somebody just doesn't realize the fan is there, or just on accident they're lifting the kid up and the ceiling is low enough that they hit the fan."
Child safety expert Nikki Jurcutz shares three signs a child’s head injury may need immediate medical attention. Call an ambulance if:
- The child loses consciousness
- Vomits more than once
- Or falls a distance more than double their height.
Source: NY Post